Clangers at Norton Priory
Published: 24/03/2025
The whole Clanger family, Major Clanger, Mother Clanger and their two children, Tiny and her brother Small, along with Granny Clanger heard that the planet Mars was visiting Norton Priory and decided to take a holiday there! They were joined by the Iron Chicken, who livesin a nest made of scrap metal which floats above the Clangers planet. She is very good friends with Tiny Clanger and the pair have lots of adventures together.
In 1969, the year of NASA's first landing on the Moon, the BBC asked Smallfilms to produce a new series for colour television, but did not speccify a storyline. Oliver Postgate, an animator and puppeteer who established Smallfilms, decided that as space exploration was topical, the new series should take place in space. Inspired by the real Moon Landing, Peter Firmin, who worked alongside Postgate, designed a set which strongly resembled the Moon.
The original inhabitant of this imagined planet was to be Moon Mouse, from Postgate and Firmin's 1967 story, Noggin and the Moon Mouse. When Postgate removed Moon Mouse's tail, "because it kept getting in the soup," the Clangers were born. This is why the Clangers look similar to mice.
The Clangers are kindly on loan to Norton Priory from the Coolabi Group and have been on display alongside Luke Jerram's Mars.
